Catherine Banner's Blog, page 3

Happy New Year

Wishing all my readers a very Happy New Year from Italy! This was the 27th of December in Sicily, and though I couldn't persuade any of my Italian family or friends into the sea with me there was a man in Speedos actually swimming so that proves it was warm enough...

Over the past few weeks I've been silent, partly because I ended 2016 with very mixed feelings and quite exhausted, like many others, but also partly because I've been working on various positive things which will be happeni...

The House at the Edge of Night: audio edition

Sometimes, as a writer, the ways in which readers discover your book will surprise you. Some books do well with book clubs, or with libraries, or with a certain demographic who weren't expected to like them. Or else they become bestsellers in countries where no one had thought they would (my first young adult book was apparently a hit in Estonia, for instance). This has also been the case with The House at the Edge of Night. It turns out that audio books are having a surge in interest at the...

First international editions of The House at the Edge of Night

This week, I heard the exciting news that The House at the Edge of Night is going to be published in Italian. This is also the twentieth language in which the book will be published, which seems fitting, since it's a particularly important one for me. When I began writing this book, it was set in Italy, it was in Italian that I did much of the research, and since writing it, Italy has also become my home. So I'm thrilled that, thanks to TEA Libri who will be publishing it over here, readers i...

What we talk about when we talk about Elena Ferrante

Earlier this week, an Italian reporter claimed to have uncovered, through a rather bizarre and intrusive piece of investigative journalism, the identity of one of my favourite writers in the world, Elena Ferrante. This was probably bound to happen sooner or later. Ferrante is female, and Ferrante is a great writer, and there are people in this world who believe the coincidence of those two facts is so rare as to require some kind of biographical explanation. Nevertheless, Elena Ferrante...

Update: working on a new book

So this isn't really news, since I've been working on it on and off for more than a year, but over the past couple of weeks it has finally become a real thing rather than a vague collection of notes and sketches. It's official: I am working on a new book. Part One... The strange thing that no one tells you about writers is that those of us who work for publishers (as opposed to self-published or uncontracted ones) work to an odd, time-shifted schedule. While readers are just in the proce...

On why writers write: seven thoughts

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Writing is an odd profession, and people have plenty of theories about why we do it. Some think writers write for fame, or money. Some think that they write to create something beautiful that will outlast them. Some think they do it for critical acclaim, or for prizes. To a writer, by contrast, most of these theories ring false. No writers are famous, and no fame is a pleasant thing to have in any case (just look at Hollywood celebrities). Posterity too is an odd, insubstantial reward,...

On US and Canadian publication week: some thoughts

So I'm just back from US and Canadian publication week forThe House at the Edge of Night, and thought I'd share some reflections. This has been an extraordinary two weeks, for many reasons. In no particular order, here are some of my thoughts, now that I'm back at my desk and normal writing life has resumed again.

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Firstly, publicity is daunting - and it is pretty much a hundred times more daunting than standing up in front of a room full of children as I used to...

Update: I am on my way to the USA and Canada!

Good news: slightly later than expected, but only by 48 hours, I am on my way to the USA. I will be touching down tomorrow, publication day, and I really can't wait to be there. Along with my publishers, I've been preparing for this week for more than two years, so I am somewhat relieved not to have missed it (as you can see in this photo from the bus to the airport, where I am also giving thanks for extra-strength antibiotics...). I will keep you updated via my Twitter and Facebook pag...

Update: First finished copies of The House at the Edge of Night, Episode Two!

I am very pleased this week to be able to share the first finished copy of the House at the Edge of Night to arrive with me from the US! I think it is absolutely beautiful. Books are so different when they arrive, finished, in your hands at the end of the publication process from the messy, incomplete manuscript which you hand in at the beginning. So much work and love has gone into this finished copy, and that’s mostly been the work of other people, who picked up where I left off, at t...

On writing about the past

This week, I’ve been thinking about historical research, and I decided to put my thoughts into a short essay. Here it is: on writing about the past, and trying to do it justice, as a writer of fiction. I

No writer begins a book out of a wish to dig over difficult, painful issues. Or at least, not for that reason alone. Books arise, usually, from one particular, personal conviction: we want to bring something to light, to illuminate characters and stories and places which we feel deserve...